British Cycling defended 19-year-old Philip Hindes on Friday after he apparently admitted deliberately crashing in an early round of the team sprint before helping Sir Chris Hoy to his fifth gold medal.

The incident, which occurred in qualifying on Thursday, became a talking point in the wake of Hindes's apparent admission in the wake of the race that he crashed on purpose to ensure a restart. He later said he was joking.

Although it is perfectly within the letter of the rules for a rider to fall to the floor within a certain distance to ensure a restart, some from outside the cycling world wondered whether it broke the spirit of the rules.

Hindes played a major part in leading Hoy and Jason Kenny to a gold medal in a world record time, having been a surprise late addition to the team.

British Cycling sprint coach Jan van Eijden defended Hindes, saying he was not able to control the bike and simply fell off.

"He just tried too hard to get out of the gate, he lifted the front wheel," he said.

"It didn't influence anyone else, it didn't affect the drawing and you saw before there were two mishaps before and no one said anything about that."

Van Eijden said Hindes, born in Germany to a British father, said it was part and parcel of track cycling.

"In the rules a restart is after having a mishap, a fall and a false start. We just go through them and I would assume every other nation would," he said. "It's so important you try to get everything right and make sure you work to perfection."

The International Olympic Committee and world cycling's governing body, UCI, said there was no reason to question the result.

An IOC spokesman said the incident was very different to the gamesmanship in the badminton earlier this week that led to eight disqualifications after competitors played to lose in order to ensure a kinder draw.

He said the cycling incident was different because paying fans "were not deprived of a competition".

"The race took place and I believe we could clearly say that best efforts were made in that competition by the British team," he said.

The French, who lost out to Britain in the final, did not formally complain about the tactic.

"You have to make the most of the rules. You have to play with them in a competition and no one should complain about that," France team's technical director, Isabelle Gautheron, told the Associated Press.

But she said she doubted that her riders would have done the same thing.

"Hindes prepared for that possibility and knew exactly what to do after his poor start. We don't share the same kind of mindset," she said.